Thread: Dial vernier calipers ?

Moore and Wright are ok,6" set on uk ebay around $85 delivered,new.
2nd hand starrett or mitutoyo shouldn't be a problem .

I can recommend Mitutoyo,I use a 150 x .05 mm and 6" x .001 " Mitutoyo dial calipers for all my general work and they haven't failed yet still accurate as ever

Originally Posted by welder

I use a 150 x 0.5 mm

Wouldnt that be called a rule?

Sorry, must be my day to be a jerk

Stuart

G'Day Fellas,
Another vote for Mitutoyo, mine are over 25 years old and are still as accurate as the day I bought them, the only reservation is that they are fairly delicate beasties and don't take kindly to swarf and other crud in the racks. On older models (mine date to 1981 and 1984) the plastic dial clamp blocks harden and eventually crack, new blocks made from aluminium fix this.
Regards,
Martin
P.S. I just remembered that I also have set of NSK dial calipers in the car for field work and while they are not as common as Mitutoyo they are just as good.

I managed to buy this for $36

Ha! I had been watching that one in my saved items and pondered over the usefulness of the digital counter. Glad you won it Mike. The neat thing about it is the 0.100" per revolution. I dropped my favourite 8 inch Mitutoyo dial vernier and it suffered fatal injuries. Its replacement is a 200 thou per revolution vintage Mit that is a bit too hard on my aged eyes. I'm looking at the busted vernier now wondering if a resurrection is possible.

Let us know what you reckon of the Digit Dial Caliper. Below is a page from an '86 catalogue.

BT

002 (Large).JPG

Ta for that BT .... you seem to have a booklet for just about every measuring device ever made

I mentioned to BT Bob a little while back how happy I have been with my $20 Aldi purchased Digital Verniers.
They have had a lot of use over the past 12 mths or so.
However just lately Ive noticed they do not go back to Zero.
An accumulative readout is starting to show which could mean a major stuff up on a workpiece in progress.
So after reading about all of you blokes fascination with Dial type Verniers, perhaps thats my next move.
Eyesight, like Bobs is failing so a Dial type readout would be good.
Looked at Starrett (I like Starrett) out of the USA (Imperial of course) & a new 6 inch unit could be landed for around $195.
regards
Bruce
ps Still use a Micrometer for final measurements, or as the workpiece is getting close to size.

Well done Mike, that looks like a nice addition!

I bought a new mity 6" digital "absolute" vernier when i bought my first lathe, i thought they were the ducks guts, i had no idea what a mic was then! I think i paid about $150 off ebay and they have served well, been dropped twice that i can remember and in 6 or 7 years only had a new battery a few months ago(despite being left one overnight regularly . The only downside is the reading goes squiffy if they get coolant in them......

Originally Posted by morrisman

Hi Can somebody recomend a good brand of dial calipers , imperial . I see many MITUTOYO on ebay for varying prices ..my two chinese calipers have died , are not accurate and they dont repeat .

My first Mitutoyo cost me one months apprentice wages and lasted me 20 years. Not bad. But they were plain, simple sliding vernier, no dial, no digital, no battery. And guess what, after I was done with it I even sold it . You cannot go wrong with a Mitutoyo.... but nowdays I feel they have become overrated and overpriced.

For me, the best Mitutoyo plain sliding vernier caliper ever, is the Diamond series (Mitutoyo 522-602). It has double prismatic guides instead of the common flat guides, making it completely parallax free to read, because the main vernier and the main scale are on one plane (on all other calipers the vernier is on top of the main scale). Very smooth feel and accurate reading. The one I have is now 20 Years old, and I still prefer it over ANY other caliper, dial or digital or whatever.

I never was happy with dial calipers. Once I bought a swiss Etalon. It was very well made with smooth action and looked and felt great. But dials on a caliper are not for me, too hard to read, so I never used it and recently sold it (for more than I once paid new). Nowdays Etalon calipers are made by Tesa in Switzerland, the same as Brown&Sharpe calipers.

That leaves digital calipers. The best I have is a Mitutoyo absolute. Very smooth movement compared to jerky Chinese calipers, very long battery life. But it was expensive, this is why I save it for the most demanding tasks.

Then I have a number of the well known cheap Chinese calipers, which I use for everyday tasks, and I abuse them with no remorse for marking out etc. These are by the way, all the same clones of the Swiss Sylvac which invented the capacitive scale (old story, they had some calipers manufactured in China, then they took the design for themselves and flooded the world with it....). Anyway, there are quality differences among chinese calipers. The worst are tree that I bought a couple years ago from Aldi (price was irresistible), only one still works, they are indeed very badly made, one had its depth gauge broken off after less than one week use, and Another one started eating one battery after another. The first thing to do is to toss the batteries that come with chinese calipers. Buy real silver oxyde batteries instead, they last A LOT longer! I use a lot of chinese scales (using the same reading heads) for my DRO's, all modified by removing the displays and miniaturized to suit.

Finally my last purchase, and the one I recommend to you if funds are tight. Got it only last week from the US, found it on ebay. Here the link:
6" DIGITAL CALIPER *NEW! | eBay
This is far superior than the usual chinese caliper. It uses a common CR2032 lithium battery. It has a large display. It is IP54 rated. It can display metric, imperial decimal, and IMPERIAL FRACTIONAL (very very handy!!!). Plus it appears well made and smooth (as far as one can tell after one week). All that for only AU$ 30 including the postage. I will definitely order one more. Chris

Hi

What do you guys use to calibrate your micrometers and vernier/dial calipers ?

I know that the brand new ' in the box ' micrometers usually came with a calibrating rod, but these rods are nearly always missing when you buy a used mic.

If two calipers or two micrometers don't match - which one is the more accurate How do you work it out ?



Mike

> What do you guys use to calibrate your micrometers and vernier/dial calipers ?
> I know that the brand new ' in the box ' micrometers usually came with a calibrating rod, but these rods are nearly always missing when you buy a used mic.

The 0-25mm or 0-1" micrometer screws are calibrated by closing the anvil until it stops using the ratchet. The with the included double ended hook spanner you rotate the sleeve until it lines up with 0.

Micrometers above 25mm are calibrated with the included calibration rod. If missing you could borrow slip gauges... But what I do, I use the 25mm micrometer to measure something of 25mm diameter that is reasonably round and accurate, such as a new ball bearing. Then calibrate the next larger micrometer to this reading. If done carefully works good enough for micrometers with 0.01mm thimble.

If you happen to have micrometers with 0.001mm resolution vernier scale, its much more tricky, you need a room with constant 20C temperature and no sun rays entering, you must shield the micrometer and the calibration rod from your own heat radiation (eg wear gloves and do not breathe onto the items....), you must give it time to adapt to temperature........



> If two calipers or two micrometers don't match - which one is the more accurate How do you work it out ?

That is no question. If both items are in about the same condition of wear, a micrometer is always far more accurate than a caliper.

Keep in mind, that your measuring instrument itself is supposed to be 10x better than the accuracy you intend to read.

A vernier caliper can usually be trusted to 0.1mm, a top quality caliper can maybe be trusted to 0.05mm. Do not be fooled by Chinese digital calipers claiming better. The display may be capable to display 0.01mm, it may be capable to repeat +/- one or two digits, but it can be trusted to at best 0.05mm.

An ordinary micrometer is at least 10 times better. Chris

Thanks Chris, for the info.

The ball bearing ball is a neat idea. But one of these M&W setting standards would be better I presume

1 inch Micrometer Standard Setting Length Calibration Gauge - Moore and Wright | eBay

It would be better to use a Standard,as once you move away from the 25mm/1" you will find it very hard to get a bearing ball.